Rosendale's Alternative Baker is all about indulgence (recipe, video)

Essell Hoenshell-Watson, owner of the Alternative Baker on Main St in Rosendale, sifts some flour for his next baked delicacy. (Photo by Tania Barricklo)

ESSELL HOENSHELL-WATSON knows what he's about to say may sound a bit racy for a family newspaper, but he insists that nothing can better describe the pleasure of indulging in good food.

"People make the same sounds when they're eating good food as when they're making love," he said, referencing a friend's favorite saying. "Think about it."

Of course, he means the moaning, the sheer ecstasy that comes from biting into a real pastry made with real ingredients by a real baker.

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Hoenshell-Watson likes to think of himself that way, and, in fact, many of his patrons over the years have agreed.

As the owner of The Alternative Baker at 407 Main St. in Rosendale, Hoenshell-Watson specializes in traditional, artisan baked goods that include his famous lemon cakes, scones, special-occasion cakes and breads like the fragrant, oven-baked focaccia.

"When you eat real food, you recognize it. It resounds. It speaks to you. There's something genuine and honest that happens," he said.

For Hoenshell-Watson, that's not just some poetic pie-in-the-sky notion.

It's exactly the sort of experience he wants to create for his customers at the Rosendale shop that's housed in a historic 19th-century building.

And he's got the training and philosophy to pull it off easily.

Hoenshell-Watson, who is from southern California, came specifically to the Hudson Valley to attend the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park.

But his love for good, wholesome food goes back to his childhood.

Hoenshell-Watson's father was a produce specialist and an adviser for the produce board during the Jimmy Carter administration.

"We always had lots of fresh fruit, and my mother was a great cook and a great baker," he said.

As a little boy, Hoenshell-Watson would also hang around and watch his grandmother, Frances Watson, bake peculiar, but unforgettable pastries.

"One of the best was her muffins," he said. "She'd make them upside down and then ice them."

Hoenshell-Watson came to New York in 1992 to pursue a culinary career after working in art galleries and museums on the West Coast.

Before going to the CIA, he visited his parents in northern New Jersey.

"I came out and it was pouring rain. I had never seen anything like that. I fell in love with it (the Northeast) at that moment," he said.

Hoenshell-Watson graduated in 1994 from the Culinary Institute's baking and pastry program.

He then set out to make his mark and worked for a time at a bakery in Westchester County.

Hoenshell-Watson later turned his Rhinecliff home into a bakery, and on weekends, he'd bring his hand-made breads and pastries to food festivals, craft fairs and farmers' markets throughout the Hudson Valley.

It wasn't too long before his customer base exploded, and his next project was to open a real bakery in a real destination.

Kingston was it.

Hoenshell-Watson began operating a 660-square-foot shop on Broadway near the Skillypot Antique storefront in December of 1997.

He said it took a while for some to grasp his concept of creating the kind of bakery one finds in the villages of Europe.

"We kind of got branded early on in Kingston as the health-food bakery," he said.

But once people tasted his breads and pastries, they learned pretty fast that it wasn't the equivalent of rabbit food, Hoenshell-Watson said.

"This is alternative," he said. "That is my code word for doing something different. I use real butter and unbleached flour. I use fresh shell eggs and Boice Brothers milk.

"The closer to the ground, the better. The closer you are to the farm, the better it is. It's a no brainer," he said.

As he was adjusting to his new storefront on Broadway, something else unexpected was happening.

Hoenshell-Watson's lemon cakes were taking off. They were being sold at local fine-food stores and even in national catalogues like Williams-Sonoma.

"We became part of the Williams' family catalogue. Our lemon cakes got sent all over the country. We were baking, wrapping, shipping and labeling 350 a day," Hoenshell-Watson said.

The work was hard, but the money was good, and he was establishing himself as one of the pioneers in the Hudson Valley as a purveyor of artisan baked goods.

Something else was happening at about the time Hoenshell-Watson's business began flourishing--he was outgrowing his bakery in the Rondout.

"Kingston turned out to be an incredibly supportive community, but I had outgrown that 660-foot-square space. Here in Rosendale, we've got 1,400 square feet, and we can seat 30 people. In Kingston, we could seat six people," he said.

Hoenshell-Watson officially closed the Kingston bakery around Passover in 2008.

He moved his operation to Rosendale and opened in June of that year.

His next project was to restore the building, which he bought and now lives in.

"We had to replace the entire floor system and put on a new roof. The entire brick perimeter needed work, and all the windows needed to be repaired. It was never ending," he said.

In fact, there's still some work that needs to be done to the building, which Hoenshell-Watson said dates back to the 1870s.

But the bakery is going strong, serving up all the standards his customers from Kingston, Woodstock and Rhinebeck had grown to love when he was in the Rondout.

Hoenshell-Watson said he draws a different crowd these days. Of course, many are from Rosendale, but they also scout him out from High Falls, Ellenville and Kerhonkson.

Besides baking his usual artisan creations, Hoenshell-Watson also prepares specialty sandwiches as well as grilled cheese and egg-and-cheese sandwiches.

"Everything we make, we make from scratch on the premises. Our bread is baked right here," he said.

He also makes a cranberry-walnut cake and a gluten-free pumpkin custard.

In fact, Hoenshell-Watson makes items for those on gluten-free diets and for other allergy-sensitive people.

On Monday, he got a call from a woman who found his bakery on the Internet, looking for someone to make a cake for her daughter's 16th birthday.

"She has a daughter who is soy-free, dairy-free, sugar-free and gluten-free, and to find someone who's willing to work within those perimeters is hard. We're a small enough bakery that I can do something like that," he said.

Hoenshell-Watson said he's thrilled that he can be there for people like that as well as his other customers, and he said he enjoys giving people the pleasure of good food.

"It's like listening to a good orchestra where everything is in harmony. It creates an experience like no other, and food is the same way," he said.

As a provocative afterthought, Hoenshell-Watson put it this way: "Food is the most fun a group of people can have with their clothes on."

The Alternative Baker House Special Egg Sandwich

Ingredients

One mini olive-rosemary focaccia

Two free-range local eggs

One and one-half ounces extra sharp New York cheddar

Salted butter

Two tablespoons Dijon mustard

Kosher salt and good, freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Split and toast mini Focaccia. Heat Heat cast-iron pan on high and slice cheese thinly. Lightly butter hot pan and crack and break eggs in pan, Scramble lightly. Form into the same shape as bread. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Lower heat to very low. Cover and flip eggs when barely set. Remove from heat and cook through. Butter top and bottom of focaccia. Spread Dijon on the same, one layer of cheese as well. Place cooked eggs on top of cheese. Cut in half and serve immediately with cup of J.B. Peels Alternative Baker Blend Coffee.